Wouldn’t the holidays be even better if you could keep the momentum of this coming weekend going well into the New Year? You know we’re talking about Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, right?
The good news is you can keep building a bigger strong following and keep increasing your engagement (and sales) once the holidays are over — and you should!
Most businesses see a dip in engagement after the New Year. But, time and time again we discover people including ourselves that continue to see great numbers. That is as long as they keep up their efforts past the holidays.
Network Marketing and Building Through the Holidays
The holidays provide many unique opportunities for all different types of businesses to market to customers in new and creative ways. Whether you own an online business or a local store there are ways you can promote your business throughout the coming months.
Here are some ideas you can use to market your business this holiday season.
Collaborate with other Businesses.
You can use a similar strategy to attract customers from other local businesses. Just exchange coupons or go in on a special offer and give those items to shoppers at each store. For example, in our business new customers always receive $10 off. These are great tools to collaborate with related (not competition) businesses.
Trade Shows or Holiday Markets.
Holiday craft sales, markets, festivals and trade shows are all great ways to showcase your products (or services). People are there with the intention to buy – cash in hand, take advantage of that. This works especially well with products that people can demo or sample. And, never forget to have some sort of content or prose to be won. These are perfect ways of collecting contact information from people.
Gift Wrapping on you!
Whether you sell products in a retail store or online, your customers are likely to want some of their purchases gift wrapped. So you can offer that as an extra service or even as a complementary add-on. We would suggest doing it ‘on you’ for that added customer care touch.
Create a Facebook or YouTube Video.
Video marketing as we know, is a great way to attract new customers throughout the year. And, the holidays are certainly no different. You can even create a themed video that shows off your holiday spirit with a song of some popular holiday stories. Get creative and have fun with it! Videos are such a great way for people to get to know you, right? Use this opportunity to put yourself out there.
Circle back to Previous Customers.
Those who have purchased from you before are far more likely to buy from you again. Don’t hesitate to circle back to previous customers and let them know about upcoming sales over the holidays they may want to take advantage of. This is especially beneficial when you have a list of what they have previously ordered. Knowing this allows you the opportunity to say ‘hey Tony I know you love this special foot cream it’s on special this weekend should I put you on the list?’
Obviously use verbiage that works for you. But overall, knowing what their buying habits already looked like will help those sales. Consider offering something in your product line that is a nice compliment to the ‘foot cream’ too.
Ways to Increase your Market Reach over the Holidays
We know that there are a ton of businesses working with similar goals in mind, right? So a clear plan or strategy is ideal to maximize the holidays when it comes to sales.
Visual – Pinterest and Instagram are GREAT for this. Presenting your audience with an online “Show and Tell”, allows you to tell a story with images that is clear and memorable.
Confidence building – Story telling or solving problems for the consumer is what creates confidence and a following for you and your brand. Your approach and your diligence in sharing your follow-up customer care can bring you customers who are weighing out where to buy the products they want. You may offer the same product as a hundred others, but if you induce confidence in the consumer that you can fulfill their expectations, you win.
User generated content — This solves a number of problems. Not only does it provide you with more volume of content, but user generated content is typically considered more trustworthy and less biased than what you might generate yourself. Your audience will love seeing their ideas mentioned or questions answered in your content – use them!
Re-purposed Content – Create new content from your current content. Consider some of your posts that received the most engagement or traction – reuse them. Additionally, let’s assume you came across content online and thought ‘this totally applies to me!‘. Use that but spin it to fit your needs and always ensure it is in your own words or give credit to the original author or source.
Final Thoughts on Building through the Holidays
Just do it! Literally. There are so many people who ease off during the holidays, don’t be that person. Sure, enjoy your time with family and friends but find a great balance for you and your business. This is the time of year that people are already conditioned to spend – don’t let that pass you by.
Whether it be reaching out to previous customers or creating dynamite content for new ones, just make it happen. You will already be ahead of the person doing nothing at all!
